The #22 GPX Racing Martini retro liveried Porsche is still in the garage. As you can see if you are watching the coverage, the headlight gels on that automobile are a vivid shade of red. They are back in the garage with more problems. Not much work being done. Matt Campbell driving, but he is way down in 45th place, 53 laps down. It could very well be game over for a team that won this race just two years ago, back in 2019. Andrea Caldarelli is now serving his drive through penalty from tenth place and he will just lose time hand over fist after this.
This penalty for Caldarelli will be manna from heaven for Lucas Auer in the #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes and perhaps also for Josh Burdon, the Australian currently behind the wheel of the #18 KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R. He is 12th overall while the sister car of Nick Tandy is eighth overall. There are two pit lanes here at Spa, remember, the new F1 pit lane and the old pit lane used for this race, for touring cars, and for endurance sports car racing, down the hill to Eau Rouge and then back up the hill, like a reverse ski jump up to the top of Raidillon.
Caldarelli is going to be driving out of his skin now, to gain the time back after serving the penalty which is done and dusted. He can push on as hard as ever now. This race has been predominantly dry, despite the ideas of possible rain the whole time. We had an hour of rain at the very beginning which soaked the track but have not had any precipitation since then. So, the trio of drivers in this car, Caldarelli/Bortolotti/Mapelli, the all-Italian trio, they are going to go for it. No question about that. Come Ledogar is still leading the motor race half a minute to the good over Charles Weerts in the WRT Audi, the #32 car.
Very aggressive over the curbs for Caldarelli. He is frustrated about having to serve that penalty and rightly so. We haven’t spoken about the Am class in a long time. Manuel Lauck, the German still holds the lead in that division in the #166 Haegeli By T2 Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. We have been calling that car the berries and custard special because of it’s vanilla yellow and ruby red graphics scheme. I want to say paint scheme, but everyone knows that most of these cars are not necessarily painted anymore, and instead wrapped in a graphics package.
Lauck and his co-drivers are currently running three places ahead of their rivals from Huber Motorsports, racing now in 37th in the overall. The sun will be fully risen in half an hour. The dawn is breaking every so steadily as we watch Lauck at work, the exhausts of the Porsche glowing as well as the brake discs and the sparks that shoot out from under the cars. We need an update on the #88 Mercedes of Jules Gounon, and we have it. Gounon is moving up in spite of the sparks. Charles Weerts, the second-place man, he has been losing time to Come Ledogar who continues on his merry way in the lead.
We can’t check the lap times always, but Ledogar is pushing hard and running quicker than Charles Weerts. Poor old Weerts probably got caught up in traffic. Ah. We’ve found the second place Am entry. This is the #23 Huber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R, and the Swiss driver Niki Leutwiler is at the controls. Leutwiler, second in the Am class, he is 40th overall, three spots down from the class leader Manuel Lauck in Am who we just mentioned. Just two teams really in the Am class. We need the Am runners in this kind of racing to be honest and we may have more in the future if we can get this cursed virus pandemic behind us.
Felipe Fraga, the Brazilian, at the wheel of the #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes is in the pit lane. Fraga brings the car in from tenth overall. He is getting into the car for his next stint. New tires on the rear and maybe scrubbed on the front. Not sure which driver is replacing Fraga at this moment. Fuel, clean windscreen. Wait. Let me double back for a moment. Felipe Fraga, the rapid Brazilian is now in the car and he replaces the departing Lucas Auer who has finished his stint and will get some breakfast no doubt and bit of a rest. The Red Bull energy drink company from Austria has a massive presence in motorsport and is spread widely throughout. Of course, their main claim to fame is the title name and title sponsor of the Red Bull Formula 1 team.
Felipe Fraga is an international driver but also runs in the wild world of Brazilian stock cars. Robin Frijns, too, he is driving not only GT cars but open wheel cars as well. Keep your skills sharp. Charles Weerts is nearly 32 seconds behind Come Ledogar as we go onboard with him through La Source and powering down to Eau Rouge. The rallycross circuit is on the righthand side of where that turn is. There is a karting track and a bobsledding hill somewhere in the next valley too. The gap is steady between Ledogar and Weerts, and now we see Alessio Rovera in the pit lane from the Pro Am class lead. He is running in 18th overall if I am right.
Matt Griffin in the sister car is 15 or so seconds behind as we listen to the howling 5.2 liter normally aspirated V10 in the back of the Audi R8 LMS GT3. The same motor is in the Lamborghini. We were going to go for a lap, but Weerts is in the pit lane for service now. He is undoing the seatbelts and his helmet cooler. Never undo your belts while driving. Come Ledogar has pitted and Nikki Thiim, he is in the lane as well in Aston Martin #95. Jules Gounon in the lane as well in the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes down in the endurance pits down towards Eau Rouge. Nikki Thiim exits the lane and returns to the race as we await Jules Gounon which has been bouncing around like a pogo stick throughout this race. There is gravel spilling out from underneath the car, and the rear wheel on the left side, or the left rear suspension has a drop in it. Maybe that is just the camera angle. New Pirelli P Zero tires going on. The pace of this car is down by a second which is not too good in a competitive field like this one. No repairs for the #88 as it goes back on track. Maybe there’s something loose on the undertray that is scraping on the deck, on the track surface.
Pit stop time too for the #107 CMR Bentley in the Silver Cup. That is being driven currently by Pierre-Alexander Jean of France. A bit of argy bargy in the Bus Stop, between the #33 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari and the #90 Mercedes for Mad Panda Motorsports. Ezequiel Perez Companc, the Argentinian and owner of the team, he will have to regroup. Perez Companc has collected a cone under the car. It was David Perel, the South African, who is at the wheel f the #33 Ferrari now as we work towards full daylight again here at Spa in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
That cone is gone but it will be debris on the Bus Stop chicane exit. We have no idea yet about the trouble for the #88 but maybe can find more out. They had their equipment laid out for the compulsory brake change for pads and discs. They are happy with the brakes right now. They bolted new tires onto the car but didn’t look at the rear end of the car which is softer in handling. Are the dampers working? Is there something in the suspension? We’ll follow up on that soon and maybe get a chance to hear from Jules Gounon after his stint finishes. We’ll let him get a drink when he comes out of the car and then ask about it.
So, at the sharp end of the field, you’ve missed nothing, as Come Ledogar, the Frenchman, remains in the lead of the motor race. Strange how little concern we saw from AKKA ASP about the damage to the Mercedes, but Jules Gounon is a very good driver. When it is in full darkness, you rely on the lights. The attitude of the car looks soft on one end and stiff on the other, though, even in the dark. Spin for the #2 Getspeed Racing Mercedes. Jim Pla at the controls, in 30th spot. Pla, from France, sharing with Olivier Grotz from the Netherlands as well as German drivers Nico Bastian and Florian Scholze.
More marbles (clag) building up on the outside of the track. Nice to see that the Pirelli tires have not had the degradation that could have been. We have had constant dry weather and no major downpours which can be expected in this part of Belgium especially with the microclimate in the mountains here. Very decent conditions for Pirelli. There was a quick downpour early in the race, but it just came in, and bish, bash, bosh, it was gone soon. We have not had major tire delamination incidents either.
Nikki Thiim has uncorked the fast lap of the race so far at 2:18.654. Thiim is in sixth spot just behind the #37 WRT Audi and the #38 Jota McLaren. He can leapfrog those two when they pit. Meanwhile, we are looking at the second-place runner in Silver Cup, the #159 Garage 59 Aston Martin which has Dane Nicolai Kjaergaard at the controls. Kjaergaard runs behind the #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3. We saw the sister #188 Garage 59 automobile in strife earlier. That car is now 43rd in the overall, after spending loads of time in the garage.
Stop and go penalty for a refueling infringement for the #25 Audi Sport Team Sainteloc Audi R8 LMS GT3. That is the car in the hands of Markus Winkelhock. As we continue checking in on the Silver Cup division, we see another Audi, the #31 Team WRT car with Frank Bird at the controls. Daylight continues to come closer to the circuit. Incidentally, Frank Bird is no relation to Sam Bird who is driving for Ferrari. Frank Bird sharing that #31 Audi with Ryuichiro Tomita of Japan and Valdemar Eriksen of Denmark of course. Visually and the atmosphere for the teams, this race is changing. We’ve made it through the night without any rain!
The skies are lightening but gradually. It’s still dark out there. It is darker than the iris of the camera makes it look, but we have about 15 or so minutes before the sun rises fully here at Spa. Revisiting the #25 Audi, that car is eighth overall, the Winkelhock/Niederhauser/Haase entry. Winkelhock has just made the stop for his stop and go penalty. As we are now in the second half of the motor race, the penalties are going to be much more severe. The light is coming quickly. We are so used to it being dark, gray, and gloomy here. Of course, at the Nurburgring earlier this year, we had fog and cold and had to stop the race due to the fog for a long, long time. We can see the #107 CMR Bentley being swiveled around on the dollies into the garage.
So, Pierre-Alexander Jean, the Frenchman, will be going nowhere fast at least temporarily. That’s tumbled to 35th in the overall now. Rik Breukers, the Dutchman, is back behind the wheel now of the Silver Cup leading #90 Mad Panda Motorsport Mercedes, as we watch the overall leader, Come Ledogar at the wheel of the #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3. Breukers is only two seconds clear of Nicolai Kjaergaard. Ledogar is leading this motor race by half a minute or so over the #32 WRT Audi which remains in second spot.
Kelvin van der Linde, the South African, is now driving the #32 Audi having taken the car over from Charles Weerts. Ferrari #51 has been up at the sharp end for a good while now. Will van der Linde and company close the gap? In fifth in the overall, is the #38 Jota Sport McLaren 720S GT3 with Oliver Wilkinson currently driving. The leaders are running in the 2:20 bracket although we did see Nikki Thiim crank out that 2:18 earlier on, just a short time ago. Thiim is closing on Wilkinson through Les Combes and now onto the downhill section of the circuit. We see Wilkinson using all the road and a little more on the exit of the corner.
What we ought to be seeing, if Mr. Director shall let us, is the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes. Poor old Jules Gounon has had no repairs done to that race car and we documented the damage earlier. But that thing has to be bouncing up and down like a pogo stick right now. With daylight closing in, we are seeing less headlight effectiveness. Now, maybe I am mistaken, and we are seeing another Mercedes with a suspension issue and not the #88 automobile. Some of the trackside billboards have taken a thrashing and we saw Manuel Lauck in the Porsche, the Haegell by T2 Racing #166 Porsche off the road earlier scattering them all over the place.
Lauck is back on track but that tema has had a fraught race. Oh boy! Nikki Thiim is now right alongside Oliver Wilkinson heading through La Source and down the hill. Good clean pass for the Aston but Wilkinson is not letting it go and he gets the spot back. Better exit through Raidillon for the Aston Martin. Great scrap for position and Rik Breukers will be licking his lips, wanting a bite of that apple as well. He says, “hey guys, do you mind if I join your little positional scrap?” Breukers had a cone wedged underneath the nose of that car, but it is gone now.
That’s got to be Jules Gounon in the #88 car. 2:21.8 for him while Thiim was a second faster at 2:20.8. The Aston Martin seems to have the legs on the McLaren in certain sections on the circuit. Rik Breukers, a lap further down from the overall lead, leads the Silver Cup class. Wilkinson and Thiim continue to chase each other. Each car delivers a lap time in a different way as we’ve explained and so the battle between these two British cars is intriguing. Meantime, the gap is stable between Come Ledogar in the lead and Kelvin van der Linde in second. Wilkinson is just not going to give this spot up to Nikki Thiim. He catches the McLaren under braking but just can’t quite make the move stick.
Poor old Rik Breukers knows these two blokes are the cork in the bottle for him, and he’d rather just press the afterburner button and zoom right by. Breukers, in the meantime, has another Garage 59 Aston Martin a mere two seconds up the road, closing fast. He knows the other Garage 59 racer will be on his six in short order. The fractured, battered, busted cone is still mournfully residing on the outside of the circuit waiting for a marshal to pick it up saying, “someone put me out of my misery! I am just a lowly traffic cone that has been beaten up by these speeding cars! Have mercy on my soul!” Those cones can be sharp on the edges, though.
Wilkinson has to watch his step because Thiim is harrying him and if he oversteps, there could be one of those mysterious trap doors that opens, sending him into the dungeon with no way out. He runs wide into La Source does Wilkinson and Thiim can smell blood. It’s that classic tooth and nail, shark and minnow fight. Gounon is still third in the Mercedes, but as we’ve said, that AKKA ASP Benz has been porpoising, ducking, and diving underneath it’s driver for a good while now. The handling on that car is going away. Poor old Jules Gounon will be wrestling that car. The sparks make it obvious to the naked eye.
Closer still, as Nikki Thiim might be running out of patience with Oliver Wilkinson. Wilkinson is driving cleanly and smartly now. He is not as defensive in his driving as we first thought. Wilkinson’s defensive maneuvers are making it more and more difficult for poor old Thiim to make his move. Who is bravest of the late brakers into La Source? Wilkinson continues making that McLaren very wide. Mr. Wilkinson is a former Ginetta racer in a one-make series, which really teaches young drivers race craft. So, Come Ledogar is now leading Kelvin van der Linde by 36 seconds.
The Iron Lynx Ferrari did take a penalty earlier but they are very consistent. The #32 Audi has also improved after a penalty earlier in the race where they clawed their way from 54th all the way up to second. Andrea Caldarelli in the #63 Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini is uncorking some really quick laps but that car is buried down in eighth in the overall. He has to find 20 seconds to catch the seventh place car, Christopher Mies in the #66 Attempto Racing Audi. Wilkinson is really running well at this moment and he is holding the gap consistently.
Now we see Wilkinson giving up the battle because he dives for the pit lane. This should be scheduled service for the #38 McLaren. There might be a driver change on this pit stop. Thiim runs a 2:22.5 this lap by. Daylight is coming at Spa. We shall see but will it be Ben Barnicoat or Rob Bell stepping back into the #38 McLaren? Wow. We have a tire carcass, lying in the middle of the road ladies and gentlemen. Now, we wonder, who had a Pirelli P Zero tire get cut down? Ah. That is the #30 Audi, the sister Team WRT entry for James Pull, Franco Colapinto, and Benjamin Goethe. Full Course Yellow. Check that. It is a slow zone right now.
We have thankfully had very few punctures in the race so far. An unfortunate incident for the #30 car which is now getting a new tire as Come Ledogar is still leading the motor race. Kelvin van der Linde is almost a minute behind! Yikes! We have to check on Nikki Thiim’s lap times, too. #51 moved up twelve spots and as we’ve said, the #32 Audi has moved up even more. We check back on the Silver Cup battle and it is still hot and heavy with Rik Breukers hanging on by the skin of his teeth over Nicolai Kjaergaard. Pitting under yellow, do you want a half a tank of gas or a full tank?
Going through Eau Rouge with a full tank, your lap times won’t be as quick. It is a definite and delicate balance. Nicolai Kjaergaard has pitted, and we might just see him begin to move up again. The Mercedes #90 could have either loose bodywork on the left front, or maybe that is just tank tape holding it together that is flapping in the breeze. Maybe that is the right front. Nothing to worry about really. In daylight, we can see damage better than at night. That’s obvious. We are now looking at the second-place runner in the Silver Cup class. This is Marvin Dienst, the German, driving the #7 Toksport WRT Mercedes AMG GT3.
Dienst is sharing that car with Axcil Jeffries, Oscar Tunjo, and Paul Petit. You’ve got quite a mix of nationalities in that team. A Zimbabwean sharing with a Venezuelan, a Frenchman, and a German. That team has been regaining ground through the night. Track limits penalties have decreased from where they were earlier in the race and during practice and qualifying. You push hard but hopefully don’t get a penalty, and maybe are let off with a warning by the stewards. We now watch the third place Silver Cup car, the #33 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 with South African David Perel at the wheel of it. Perel sharing with Benjamin Hites from Chile and Italian Fabrizio Crestani.
So, the top three Silver class cars run right together with a tad over ten hours to go. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, and more. Audi are in this but Mercedes, in Pro-Am at the head of that division. Mercedes and Audi have probably been the more dominant cars in this race, although Ferrari are leading. Ah. From a long way back, Perel might get passed. That is the #14 Lamborghini, the Emil Frey Racing car. Which of the three drivers is currently at the wheel? Can you trust another car ahead of you? One half hearted lunge in the darkness could really damage a car. Be circumspect during the night. But now, in daylight, the drivers will be more inclined to see each other and where they are on the road.
These 24-hour races offer a plethora of championship points. So reach out and grab them when and if you can. Great reliability for these cars in a dry race and fewer casualties without any rain around. Come Ledogar’s lead over Kelvin van der Linde has ballooned to 40 seconds. Kelvin van der Linde then has a sizable gap to Jules Gounon in third spot. The ragged suspension on that #88 Mercedes is still a question mark. Will the car drive properly? Will the suspension system hold itself together? You don’t want to be repairing a suspension system with chicken wire and chewing gum as it were. That wouldn’t be pretty. Jules Gounon has likely been told by the team, “we will work on the suspension at the pit stop that comes at the end of the stint you are on now.”
“For the time being, just hang in there, sunbeam. Grin and bear it, mate.” Black and white flag shown to the #61 EBM Giga Racing Porsche 911 GT3R of Carlos Rivas. Rivas, the Dutchman is of course sharing that automobile with Wolfgang Triller of Germany, team owner Will Bamber of Australia, and fellow Australian, Reid Harker. That is a Pro-Am entry. Notice one of the Ferrari’s has a Fiat badge. That reminds me of the days at Ferrari’s Formula 1 team in the 1990s when they had the Fiat branding on the car, for the driving teams that included Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger, and then, Michael Schumacher (the seven-time F1 champion), and Eddie Irvine.
Two brands in the same company of course. How are the cars handling? The temperature is rising upwards
consistently and that will provide the drivers with more grip. At the same
time, the cars will be losing grip due to the tires being very old and getting
to the end of a stint.
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